The main problem with pounce is not necessarily the way its controlled but a combination of how it is controlled and her interaction with minions. Swipe has the very same problem and unfortunately her controls do not give you the feeling of an agile, fast, and flexible Big Cat.
The main problem is the combination of her controls and her interaction with pathing in cougar form.
I don't like the idea of her purely jumping to her cursor because it doesn't fix her control over swipe. Jumping to the cursor makes it easier for her to escape but doesn't really improve her combat effectiveness.
I'd prefer a different approach:
Allow Nidalee to ignore unit collisions. (She seriously has some really messed up pathing around minions, champions, etc)
Both Pounce and Swipe retain the current Control scheme unless under certain conditions.
If Nidalee highlights an enemy with the cursor then swipe and pounce will claw/jump in the direction of that enemy.
This fixes 3 issues -
1. Nidalee will no longer leap over targets dealing 0 damage with pounce.
2. Nidalee will swipe in the direction of enemies immediately instead of having a long delay and slow turn radius hindering her from damaging enemies.
3. Nidalee will be able to pounce to an intended target even when there are minions, champions, or fuster clucked instances of utter chaos.
Currently her controls are slow, telegraphed, clunky, and often unpredictable when in contact with enemy and allied collisions.